Criminal Justice System

Somewhere in the giant interconnected system of banks, merchants, and transaction processors, someone got hold of not only debit card numbers, but the PINs used to access those accounts as well. No one knows where the security breach occurred or no o

"In this sea of government attorneys and agents who have assiduously played by the rules, Ms. Martin stands as the lone miscreant." "Her aberrant and apparently criminal behavior should not be the basis for undoing the good work of

Lawyers for 2 airlines being sued by 9/11 victims prompted a federal attorney to coach witnesses in the Zacarias Moussaoui death penalty trial so the government's case against the al-Qaida conspirator would not undercut their defense, victims**Q*

[They use your cell phone on the outside.] California prison officials have begun using Global Positioning System anklets to track known gang members. "GPS tracking is just another tool in the bag," said a spokesman for the corrections depa

Fighting for a death penalty in a 9/11 case, prosecutors are beseeching a federal judge to reconsider her decision to exclude half the government's case against confessed al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.

In a sharp blow to the US government's only case connected to the September 11 hijackings, a federal judge said sentencing for Zacarias Moussaoui could go ahead but without critical aviation-related testimony and evidence.

An angry federal judge recessed the death penalty trial of confessed al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui to consider whether government violations of her rules against coaching witnesses should remove the death penalty as an option.

An FBI mistake linking an Oregon lawyer, a Muslim convert, to the 2004 Madrid train bombings was a "watershed event" that led to improved fingerprint identification but more needs to be done, according to a federal report.

Moussaoui became "an obsession" of international terrorism investigators in the Minneapolis office. The effort intensified when top bureau officials at FBI headquarters in Washington refused to support requests for warrants to search Moussa

Timothy Muldowny's lawyers sought computer programming information for the analysis machine that determined he was drunk to see whether the test was accurate. The company that makes the Intoxilyzer refused to reveal the computer source code for i

Despite the 6th Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts. Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005.

The government logs show that Qahtani "was threatened with dogs, placed in extreme and debilitating isolation for three months prior to the period the interrogation log covers, and subjected to unlawful 'aggressive' interrogation tactics

Confronting the defendants at the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals with the evidence against them is like dragging vampires into the sunlight the chief prosecutor said. [If your evidence was compelling you would have no problem with a real trial.]

A 20-year-old legal fight over protests outside abortion clinics ended with the Supreme Court ruling that federal extortion and racketeering laws cannot be used against demonstrators. The 8-0 decision was a setback for abortion clinics

The U.S. government has agreed to pay $300,000 to an Egyptian man who sued after he was detained for nearly a year following the Sept. 11 attacks, his lawyer said. Elmaghraby, a former restaurant worker, was held at the Metropolitan Detention Center

Federal judges halted 3 of the trials pending a US Supreme Court ruling on whether Bush had authority to create the tribunals to try foreign terrorism suspects after the 9-11 attacks. The Pentagon is proceeding with other cases; no one ordered it not

The Justice Department has a message for Congress: clean up your house or else we may have to do it for you. The paralyzed and often lax House ethics committee has created a vacuum that prosecutors won't hesitate to fill. The House’s internal mec

FBI agents investigating alleged terrorist activity in California were unable to gather evidence showing that a 23-year-old man attended a paramilitary camp in Pakistan, the case's lead agent testified. The case against Hayat is based on a confes

The case against Weisman and Rosen has engendered a great deal of interest because of its implications for free speech, is precedent-setting because they are private citizens, and are thus not subject to secrecy obligations as are government employee

[Get the message?] The Bush administration said that journalists can be prosecuted under current espionage laws for receiving and publishing classified information but that such a step "would raise legitimate and serious issues and would not be

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a small congregation in New Mexico may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a 4-hour ritual intended to connect with God. Federal drug agents should have been barred from confiscating the hoasca tea of the Brazil

The US Supreme Court put off a decision on a US government bid to dismiss a challenge by Osama bin Laden's former driver against military tribunals for Guantánamo Bay terror suspects. Government lawyers argued a new law removed its jurisdiction

A federal terrorism trial opened with wildly diverging views of a 23-year-old Californian who traveled to Pakistan either for terrorism training, as the government contends, or to help his ailing mother, study religion and marry, as his lawyer assert

3 years after his arrest, and more than 2 months after a federal trial returned no convictions, Dr. Sami Al-Arian remains behind bars. In December, jurors acquitted the former University of South Florida professor on 8 of 17 charges related to finan

The chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said that he may add language to the fiscal 2007 intelligence authorization bill to criminalize the leaking of a wider range of classified information than is now covered by law.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales brushed aside requests that he remove himself from the investigation of Jack Abramoff and the lobbyist's ties to Bush administration officials and members of Congress. Gonzales said the inquiry is being run by ca

Germany's constitutional court has scrapped a law allowing the military to shoot down passenger planes suspected of being hijacked for terror attacks. The government had no right to kill those on the plane to try to save the lives of others.